He has been asked to hoist Sunderland from the foot of the table, where they
sit with a single point from seven games. He has been asked to heal a
multilingual dressing-room fractured by the brief and baffling reign of
Paolo Di Canio, to get the best out of 14 new players and work within the
confines of a new club structure. If Gus Poyet had miracles at his disposal,
he would be asked for them too.

After a fortnight of deliberation, Ellis Short, Sunderland’s owner and
chairman, has returned to where he started, handing the vacant head coach’s
role